Wednesday, April 12, 2017

California Governor Brown's Gas Tax Hikes a Recall Offense

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Democrats are not for the poor, they are for ruling elitist control and raping the public of as much money as they can to pay for ideologically based policies, rather than the duties of the government.  They think we forget.  "If at first you don't succeed, tax, tax, again" seems to be their motto.  In California, the belly of the beast has never been so filled with crap...and stupidity.  When former Governor Gray Davis tripled the “car tax” (aka ‘vehicle license fee’) 14 years ago, he was ousted by a recall election.  Now, California Governor Jerry Brown, in a State where just about all of our taxes are already the highest in the country, or among the highest in the country, is ready to sign a bill passed by the Democrat supermajority to push through a new round of gas taxes that make what Gray Davis tried to do look like child's play.

Governor Brown says his plan to slam us with higher taxes is for our crumbling infrastructure.  He is committing to push a “$5.2 billion road-funding package” down our throats, as we still continue to fight the overbudget $68 billion bullet train debacle, and as the State promises to defy the United States Constitution's Supremacy Clause with Sanctuary State legislation that is contrary to federal immigration law (and that needs a lot of money the bankrupt State does not have so as to provide plenty of benefits to the illegal aliens).

Brown’s proposal is prepared to hike the state’s gas tax and set up a “user fee” based on a sliding scale tied to a vehicle’s value.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the proposal includes “a 12-cent-per-gallon increase in current gas excise taxes on November 1. Future increases would be made through a new tax calculating methodology and annual inflation adjustments. Those changes would begin in 2019 and would be fully implemented in 2020.”

These taxes would be on top of the increased vehicle use fee, which the Times states would “average $51.00 per year based on the value of the car.”  Note, on my truck, I already pay over $200 per year in registration fees (and must get it to pass smog every other year - which can include a number of repair bills that would not be necessary if the smog laws were not so restrictive).

The sliding scale fee for the right to drive on California’s roads starts at $25 (on top of what we already pay) for cars valued under $5,000, and rises to $175 (in addition to existing fees) for vehicles whose value exceeds $60,000. All electric vehicle owners will be billed $100 — a huge opt-out for those who pay zero gas taxes while driving very expensive cars (and are not as climate change neutral as we are told. . . after all, how much energy is used, and pollution created, to generate electricity it uses, or to build the batteries it uses?).

Brown claims that with the new tax money he will expand public transit (I thought he wanted to repair roads?)

So, the guy who drives the expensive car, who has plenty of money to fill his tank, will essentially be unaffected by this, but the small family who is already pinching pennies in the current California hostile economic environment, may now have to choose between eating, or filling the tank, because if the latter is not done, dad (or mom) can't go to work in a State where the regulations are so incredible, work is normally a long commute way (and heavy traffic away).

In truth, the tag lines Democrats are presenting is a bunch of garbage.  We are being lied to, like usual.  The money they think they will raise through this increase in taxes is for the overbudget train, benefits for illegal aliens, free college tuition for illegal aliens, and pulling together money for the high pay and pension increases for public sector unions.

Oh, and there's the economic principle about how taxing an activity results in less of that activity being performed - which means, in the long run, the tax revenue will drop because people won't be able to afford to drive.  And then, the taxes will be applied elsewhere.  You know, like how solar power users in this State are now being hit with fees to make up for the fact that the State is losing money because the solar power consumers don't pay as high of a bill because they have solar power.

Don't worry, the Democrats are promising the taxpayers that this time they will spend the money on what they say they will.  Forget their past, the Democrats promise they will protect taxpayers from … well, the Democrats.

As more tax money is being sucked out of Californians, let us also not forget the Oroville Dam debacle where an emergency caused by a lack of money going into dam repairs even shocked Democrats, who were convinced that because of global warming we were in a 50-year drought.  Simply put, they didn't fix the dam because their Climate Change Hoax models said we were not going to get the rain we got last year.

The Oroville Dam near-catastrophe showed us how Governor Jerry Brown’s focus isn't on infrastructure, or on the basic duties of the State government.  We are still wondering why it is the Oroville Dam was not repaired, and new facilities have not been built, when we passed the (Proposition 1) Water Bond money, yet, the State seems to have plenty of funds to grant oodles and oodles of benefits to illegal aliens.

It's time to recall California Governor Jerry Brown, now; and throw the Democrats out of control of California before they finish the job of turning our State into Detroit, or Venezuela.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

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